The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Asiatic Hybrid Lily plant, botanically known as Lilium hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Tiny Athlete’.
The new Asiatic Hybrid Lily is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in 't Zand, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new potted Asiatic Hybrid Lily plants with erect flowers, attractive flower coloration and good postproduction longevity.
The new Asiatic Hybrid Lily originated from a cross-pollination in 1996 of an unnamed proprietary Asiatic Hybrid Lily, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the unnamed proprietary Asiatic Hybrid Lily, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Tiny Athlete was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the resultant progeny of the cross-pollination in a controlled environment in 't Zand, The Netherlands in May, 1999.
Asexual reproduction of the new Asiatic Hybrid Lily by bulb scales in a controlled environment in 't Zand, The Netherlands since November, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Asiatic Hybrid Lily are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.